Amman- 16 June 2022
A student-training workshop about data literacy has been held at German Jordanian University (GJU) from May 15-19, 2022. The workshop was conducted under the umbrella of the DAAD-funded project titled "Introducing Data Literacy at the German Jordanian University" (IDL@GJU). The workshop hosted eight faculty professors from five German partner universities: Bonn-Rhein-Sieg University of Applied Sciences, Ernst-Abbe-University of Applied Sciences Jena, Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences, Fulda University of Applied Sciences, and Technical University Brandenburg. The participants of the workshop included two groups of students: 19 students from the German partner universities and 24 GJU students.
At the beginning of the workshop, Vice President for International Affairs at GJU, Prof. Ralf Roßkopf, welcomed the students and the guests. Subsequently, several intensive training sessions were given to students in the first four days.
Namely, the workshop was divided into five sessions: Data Ethics (taught by Prof. Dr. Christina B. Class), Data Collection (taught by Prof. Dr. Rainer Herpers), Data Visualization (taught by Prof. Dr. Paul Grimm, Prof. Julia Schnitzer, and Prof. Dr. Jan-Torsten Milde), Data Analysis (taught by Prof. Dr. Christopher Schneider), Data Security (taught by Dr. Dhiah Abou-Tair and Dr. Amani Abu Jabal). The last day of the workshop was dedicated for a data literacy hackathon (led by Prof. Julia Schnitzer and Prof. Dr. Jan-Torsten Milde) in which the students were clustered in 4 groups in which GJU students and the guest students (i.e., German students) collaborated. At the closing ceremony of the workshop, the groups presented their results. The titles of projects presented by students were a) Fresh water Availability: Differences between Jordan and Germany, b) Demographics of Jordan and Germany, c) life expectancy, and d) Bic Mac Index.
Along with the academic goal of this workshop, it was an excellent opportunity for strengthening the intercultural communication between German and Jordanian researchers and students. Researchers from both sides got the opportunity to interact with each other and discuss potential research and development collaboration. As for the Jordanian students, they found their companions from Germany where they practiced their German language skills, learned more about the German culture, and got first-hand answers about their concerns regarding their upcoming experience to live in Germany for their mandatory study year. On the other side, the German students experienced by themselves the Jordanian Culture and hospitality. Besides, they collaborated with GJU students in a foreign environment where they learned how to adapt and interact in such a new setup.
Moreover, GJU organizers arranged several social activities including a walk to Amman downtown, Mount Nebo tour, and grill event.
It is worth mentioning that the faculty professors from the German partners’ universities consisted of Prof. Dr. Rainer Herpers, Prof. Dr. Christina B. Class, Prof. Dr. Paul Grimm, Prof. Dr. Bettina Harriehausen, Prof. Julia Schnitzer, Prof. Dr. Jan-Torsten Milde, and Prof. Dr. Christopher Schneider.
